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No matter what line of work you are in, you are likely seeking ways to be more productive and successful. And, regardless of the profession, how effective you interact with and influence other people can greatly determine your fate.
That’s because it is all about relationship, and relationships should always be about the long term.
We now live in a world that no longer tolerates disconnected forms of influence. Spam filters help block emails that are unrelated to our wants and needs. The stereotypical used car salesman is seen as merely...

I walk in two worlds though neither is home.
My work and education are based in and on human systems and psychology. I’m drawn to both for a sense and deeper understanding about when, how, and if people connect. The energy from groups has been a positive reinforcement for me that people co-create and deliver a collective goal while empowering themselves and others. Airplanes fly, bridges get built, and communities mend themselves. No man, or woman, is an island.
The psychological aspect of my focus involves my search for knowledge...

I have just finished teaching a course in family business in Dubai, a business oasis of 3 million people, a city-state with daringly designed high rises and bustling commerce on the Arabian Gulf. For four days, this open and eager group of 75 mostly middle-eastern young men and women engaged in vigorous exchange. Each of them wrote a personal account of their family businesses, and their stories gave me a window into the challenges of a poor and tradition-bound family struggling forward to enter a global, technical commercial world. In a...

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — Seneca
I often encounter people I admire who seem extremely lucky in getting a great job, regular promotions, and seemingly unlimited professional success.
For the most part, I believe these people earned this fate through taking responsibility for their luck. What I mean by taking responsibility is that they are doing the work necessary to be lucky in their careers.
In psychologist Richard Wiseman’s book “The Luck Factor,” he studied...

Do you think much about your choice of terms, the language you use? How these influence the ways you think? How the ways you think influences your worldview and the choices available to you? How this leads to the behaviors you choose (consciously or unconsciously)?
Linguists have long argued about whether language “causes” us to think in certain ways. Lera Boroditsky (University of California San Diego, formerly of Stanford) has been conducting research for several years on questions such as these. You can find articles by and...